We're not in Kansas anymore

OK, so it's not original material. Sue me. I thought the picture of the palm tree was a nice touch.  And no, we're not anywhere close to Kansas, although one of the guys is FROM Kansas (I think) so there is that. He doesn't wear ruby slippers though. At least not in public.   

Yet. 

Remember when I said I wasn't coming down here to see the world's richest mouse?  Well apparently I spoke too soon because that picture above was taken at one of his properties.  I'm going to tread very lightly here, my legal team, talented as it may be (you rock baby!) is at a slight disadvantage compared to the corporate legal team employed by the mouse.  And that's not a slam.  I mean, for someone that isn't even an attorney she has some pretty sound advice.  So, while I'm not fishing for endorsement opportunities (I'm not refusing, just not seeking) down here (from the mouse, I mean) I don't want to go to the other extreme (now if that Pacific northwest based, coffee-based, hot beverage, super, mega, global conglomerate wants to become the official coffee of "I can relate to ducks" let's talk) and offend the little rat, you know?  He brings so much joy to little children (and takes so much money from their parents) how can I speak ill of him?  

Right?

On to today.  We started with breakfast in Daytona, which is where Dave and I met the tour last night.  We hopped on the interstate after I gave Vickkkkkki (yes she's still on the tour) a bunch of crap for almost walking past me in the lobby.  We split the girls up today.  Two of the guys left early for an interview with media types while the other three vehicles convoyed, more or less, to Orlando.  

A word about Orlando area traffic...

Maybe more than "A" word...

It's absolute nonsense.  Chaos, mayhem, insanity.  We sat in a seven mile back up for over 45 minutes for a three car fender bender.  These people don't even know how to create a real traffic jam.

But really what can you expect from a place that produced members of not only the Backstreet Boys, but also N'Sync?  To say nothing of Carrot Top and Casey Anthony (described in Wikipedia as "notable criminal suspect" btw).  I don't know why I was surprised.  Here's a thing though.  The city proper only has 230,000 people, but the metro area has over 2 million, plus tourism is through the roof.  I guess they're entitled to their traffic jams.  Also?  The second item listed under "culture" is shopping malls...

I rest my case.

We went to the MD Anderson (I think those are initials, not as in doctor) Cancer Center and met many awesome people and gave a bunch of hugs.  Great morning.

Here you see one of the first time drivers, Mike from the UK (our first European driver I believe) escorting a survivor over to Leslie so she can sign it.  You'll see more of Mike in an upcoming installment of MYPHTD I'm sure.

Below you see Mike mugging it up with the youngest visitor we had today.  I don't know how old she was but she was tiny.  She came to help her Dad, an Orange County firefighter, sell t-shirts.

And here, in our last picture, we see Conrad.  Conrad is a therapy dog and he spends many hours up on the cancer unit providing comfort to the patients there.  Conrad is also a cancer survivor himself.  The white patch you see is the remains of his radiation treatment for bone cancer in his nose.  

After we left the hospital, we drove to our hotel, hung out there with some FD folks, chilled in our rooms for a couple hours and then went to downtown Orlando for a final event of the day.

Late start tomorrow morning and I'm OK with that.  

Pink Heals!

Peace